Sunburn

Sexuality outside the norm of heterosexuality was outlawed in Ireland in the Offences Against the Person Act of 1861 and the Criminal Law Amendment Act of 1885. In 1983, David Norris, whom Lucy’s parents deliberately avoid discussing in Sunburn, challenged these laws as unconstitutional, citing the legal right to privacy. Though the high courts in Ireland decided against Norris, he brought his case to the European Court of Human Rights in 1988, which ruled that these laws violated the European Convention on Human Rights, again citing the right to privacy. Five years later, in 1993, the laws in Ireland were repealed, thus decriminalizing being gay. Since that time, Ireland has notably progressed regarding legal protections and rights for the LGBTQ+ community, including the 2015 decision to allow transgender people to self-declare gender in administrative, government tasks.

The novel takes place between the events of Norris’s campaign for equal rights, beginning just after the European Court of Human Rights’ ruling and ending just after the repeal of the antigay laws in Ireland. Lucy leaves Crossmore with Martin less than one year prior to the repeal of these laws, and when she returns to Crossmore, her relationship with Susannah is legal. Though the laws dictate the rights and protections that the government provides to citizens, the legalization of Lucy’s relationship with Susannah does not change her mother’s